Penitent Mary Magdalene
- Gregorio Vásquez de Arce y Ceballos, Colombian, 5/9/1638-8/6/1711
- Born: Bogota, Colombia
- Work Locations: Bogota, Colombia
- Attributed to
Attributed to Gregorio Vásquez de Arce y Ceballos, Penitent Mary Magdalene, 1600s. Oil paint on wood panel; 13 × 11 × 1 in. Gift of the Stapleton Foundation of Latin American Colonial Art, made possible by the Renchard family, 1990.355.
According to the Christian apocrypha, after the death and resurrection of Christ, Mary Magdalene retreated to the wilderness to live an ascetic lifestyle of prayer. Images of the so-called Penitent Magdalene typically depict her against a rocky outcropping alongside several attributes: a bible, skull, crucifix, and jar of ointment. Here, Gregorio Vásquez de Arce y Ceballos frames the composition tightly, with the wilderness visible over her shoulders and the skull resting beneath her hand. Rather than gazing contemplatively heavenward, her large eyes are downcast. Faintly visible around her head is the delicate line of a nimbus, referencing her sanctity.
Vásquez, to whom this work is attributed, was one of Nueva Granada’s most significant painters of the 1700s. He was born in Santafé de Bogotá to a family from Seville, where he trained as an apprentice to the painter Baltasar Vargas de Figueroa (1629-1667) and was heavily influenced by Vargas’ style. The restrained palette of browns (known as brunaille) was a hallmark not only of Vásquez’s production but of painting from Nueva Granada (now Colombia) more broadly.
– Kathryn Santner, Frederick and Jan Mayer Fellow of Spanish Colonial Art, 2022
